


Pouvez-vous parler français?

by PearlButterfly



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Everyone Is Alive, Everyone Is Gay, F/F, Fluff and Crack, Français | French, Humor, Learning another language is difficult, M/M, Remus and Sirius are an old married couple, Tonks learning French
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-23
Updated: 2019-04-23
Packaged: 2020-01-24 06:45:43
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,568
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18566089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PearlButterfly/pseuds/PearlButterfly
Summary: Tonks decides to learn French to further connect with her girlfriend, Fleur.Turns out it's a bit more difficult than she first expected.





	Pouvez-vous parler français?

**Author's Note:**

> I apologise if any of the French written in this is incorrect, I did some research online to find most of these phrases!
> 
> I think French is a beautiful language as well :)

Tonks had never really had time for love before Fleur.

She was an Auror, constantly on the go and fighting evil, so she preferred spending her free nights relaxing at home. When she did go out it was solely to have a good time and enjoy herself before the next mission or meeting was called.

Most of the time, she was paired up with Remus for missions. He wasn’t a bad looking man, she could admit, but, after a few not-so-subtle attempts at setting them up by Molly, she loudly admitted that she didn’t swing that way. It wasn’t long after that Remus admitted he didn’t either and that he was actually in a relationship with Sirius. Mad-Eye had owed her five galleons after that little announcement.

It was around that time that Fleur was introduced into the Order as the newest and also youngest member. Tonks was immediately hypnotised. Fleur was twenty years old, with light blonde hair, blue eyes and skin that practically glowed. Tonks wasn’t too familiar with Veelas but if they were all as enchanting as this one then clearly she was living in the wrong place.

Tonks prayed to the Goddess of Lesbians that Fleur also liked women.

Turns out she must have been very good in a past life because Fleur had joined her on a night out at a bar, and a few bottles of wine later they were making out in a dark booth.

After a much more sober first date over dinner, they made it official.

Apart from the fact that Fleur was beautiful, a talented witch and incredibly kind, Tonks’ favourite thing about her was definitely her accent. The way she casually slipped into French without even realising it was fascinating.

So, she bought a French dictionary and decided to start learning Fleur’s native language. Surely it couldn’t be that hard.

***

Turns out it was a bit harder than she’d first thought.

Not only were the words themselves difficult to pronounce but the verb conjugations confused her to no end and what even were le and la anymore?

Fleur was always gently encouraging but Tonks knew she must have been internally wincing at every butchered phrase that she tried out. Tonks determined that she’d master the phrase herself first before trying them out on Fleur.

The first mistake she made was when it was a very hot day, so hot that even opening all the windows in the house made little difference.

Tonks and Fleur were both staying at 12 Grimmauld Place while Fleur received extra training from both Sirius and Remus. The former had gone out for a few things, promising his boyfriend that he’d make his favourite “like old times”.

Remus noticed Tonks flicking through her French dictionary. “What’s that?”

“Mon tréssor has decided to become acquainted with my language,” Fleur told him from where she was sitting by the window sipping tea. It totally wasn’t fair that she spoke English as a second language better than Tonks did as a first.

“Oh really?” Remus raised an eyebrow.

“I don’t know why you’re sounding so surprised,” Tonks retorted. She guessed he was still bitter from the misunderstanding last week after Bill dared her to morph into Sirius and attempt to seduce Remus. She’d won the dare but Remus had gone full professor on them. At least she’d revealed herself before he’d _revealed_ himself. Oops.

“I just didn’t think languages were really your thing, that’s all.”

Fleur offered her a dazzling smile. “Don’t listen to him Tonks, I think you’re learning very well.”

Tonks put together a sentence in her head, nodding at the dictionary once more. “I think this is appropriate for today. Je suis chaude.”

Remus choked on his tea, coughing a few times. Tonks flicked her gaze to Fleur who was staring at her, blinking far too quickly. “What?”

“That’s a slang,” Remus said, once he’d got his breath back, “that means you’re… um…”

“Sexually excited,” Fleur told her, looking scandalised.

“What?” Tonks flicked the book back open. “But, je suis is ‘I am’ and chaude is ‘hot’, how is that…?”

“You have to say j’ai instead in this case,” Fleur informed her. “Maybe it’s worth doing a little extra research.”

Tonks slumped into a chair, feeling defeated. She was just glad Sirius wasn’t present to hear that.

***

The next time it happened was when the two had gone out to a French restaurant for dinner.

Tonks still stood by her point that it was misleading when a word with a different meaning looked too much like another English word. No one could accuse her of having mastered French yet but she was eager to test out her vocabulary on people who weren’t Fleur and Remus.

She managed to successfully ask for water and thank the waiter, but it was when it came to ordering the food that she slipped up.

Fleur ordered perfectly, her soft accent like music that had her girlfriend totally transfixed. Then Tonks attempted her most ambitious phrase yet. “Est-ce que ce plat contient des préservatifs?”

The waiter had that same shocked look that Remus had had. Fleur raised her menu in front of her face as if she was laughing.

“Voulez-vous dire des conservateurs?” The waiter asked.

“Oui, elle veut dire des conservateurs,” Fleur answered for her.

“Ah, oui,” the waiter responded.

“There are preservatives,” Fleur told her.

Once they’d ordered and thanked the waiter, Tonks shot Fleur a quizzical look.

“Préservatifs are condoms,” Fleur explained. “The word you meant to say is conservateurs.”

Tonks blinked. “So you’re saying that I just asked that poor guy if there are condoms in the food?”

Fleur hadn’t lost that teasing smile. “I’m sure they get that a lot. You were perfect until that last word.”

Tonks fumbled for the drinks menu. “What’s the word for wine? Because I’m gonna need some of that.”

***

They’d had a particularly rough mission, having to stay on guard for days trying to capture a small band of rogue dark wizards. By the end of it, they were all glad to be back home. Fleur hadn’t gone because the Order thought she wasn’t quite ready for a mission of that scale, not until she had more experience.

Remus and Sirius were cuddled up on the sofa in the living room, both probably lamenting about how they were too old to be doing this still and they should just move to the countryside and take up knitting each other matching socks. Typical old married couple.

“Bonjour mes petits croissants.” Tonks nodded in their direction as she walked past, on her way to find Fleur.

She was in their bedroom, looking a bit forlorn and holding one of her dresses in her hands. “It’s ruined!” Fleur didn’t even look up at her.

“What’s wrong?” Tonks asked, walking up to her and pressing a quick kiss to her cheek.

“I spilled something on my dress and whatever it is it won’t come off! I’ve tried every spell I can think of.”

“Let me have a look.” Tonks regarded the stain. Yes, Fleur was right, the dress was definitely ruined. “Sacré bleu!”

Fleur frowned at her. “Excusez-moi?”

“Did I not say it right?”

“Not only is my dress ruined but now you’ve decided to learn outdated phrases from my language! Could this day get any worse?”

Tonks could only watch as Fleur ran into the bathroom and shut the door.

***

A meeting had been arranged the next day to talk about the mission they’d just completed. Fleur hadn’t made an appearance since she hadn’t been on said mission.

While she was a bit discouraged by her girlfriend’s response to her attempt at engaging in what she thought was French slang, Tonks chalked it up to Fleur being upset about the dress. It had been her favourite, after all.

“Overall a successful mission,” Mad-Eye was saying, “but some of you need to be a bit sharper, a bit quicker in your reactions.”

“I think extra training together would benefit all of us,” Sirius suggested.

“Yes and training in our pairs as well,” Bill Weasley added.

“We’ll go over it again,” Mad-Eye told them. “Any of you end up dead after that then that’s your own business. Do the rest of you agree?” He looked at the others.

“Oui mes amigos,” Tonks agreed. A few of the Order looked strangely at her down the table. “What?”

“Mes amies,” Remus corrected gently.

“Sorry?”

“Amigos is Spanish, amies is the French word.”

Tonks groaned, putting her head in her hands. “This is impossible!”

***

Despite all of that, Tonks was never disheartened. She wanted to connect with her girlfriend in all ways possible, even if it meant burdening everyone else with her bad French while she was learning.

They were lying in bed together, settling down to sleep after a long day of work, and she had been going over one particular phrase in her head for hours, hoping the pronunciation was correct.

Tonks turned over, snuggling up to Fleur. “I know I keep getting it wrong,” she whispered, “but I think I might have mastered one phrase.”

Fleur’s eyes were bright even in the dark of the room. “Really?”

“Yep. Je t’aime. That’s how you say it, isn’t it?”

Fleur wrapped her arms around Tonks, pressing their warm bodies together. “Oui mon amour. Je t'aime aussi.”

Tonks was definitely counting that as a win.


End file.
